Changes at Fiserv

Fiserv recently announced that it was selling a portion of its Fiserv Investment Support Services (Fiserv ISS) operations to TD Ameritrade. Included in this sale is the Fiserv Trust Company which provides asset custody services for our clients. This leaves us with two options at Shearwater Capital. We can either accept TD Ameritrade as the new custodian for our client assets or we can switch to another company that provides these services.

The easiest course would be to accept the change to TD Ameritrade. We’ve been told that this transition will be seamless and will most likely involve no paperwork. If we choose this option, you will see the TD Ameritrade logo at the top of your monthly statements in a few months and will have online access to your account information on the TD Ameritrade website. Otherwise, your experience should be unchanged.

Switching to a different custodian would also be relatively painless, but might require completing some transfer paperwork. We are in the process of evaluating our options and will let you know when a decision has been made, hopefully within a couple months. In making this decision, we are considering factors such as the reputation of the firm, access to a broad range of securities including DFA funds, trading technology and efficiency, and customer service. Our primary motivation is to provide the best possible experience for our clients at a reasonable price. We can guarantee that your investment management fee structure will remain unchanged through this transition. However, it is possible that the transaction costs will increase. Fiserv is a low-cost provider for institutional trades at $15 per trade. Since we are a buy-and-hold investor, a small increase in transaction costs should not have a major impact on your bottom line over the long run.

Another more immediate change is that the Accountlynx website, which provides online account access, is being phased out. A new system with 128-bit encryption has been implemented. To use this system, it is first necessary to adjust the privacy controls on your web browser so that the secure Fiserv websites are allowed. To do this, please proceed as follows:

1. Open a web browser (such as Internet Explorer)
2. Click on the Tools tab along the top of the browser
3. Scroll down and click on Internet Options
4. Click on the Privacy tab at the top of the window
5. Click on the Sites button. If you have an older web browser and don’t see Sites, click on Edit.
6. Under Address of Web site, type in datalynx.com
7. Click Allow
8. Under Address of Web site, type in ftsportal.com
9. Click Allow
10. Click OK (bottom right) to exit Privacy menu
11. Click OK again to exit Internet Options Window
12. Close web browser
    
    The next step is to register with the Fiserv website for online account access:
    

1. Go www.fiserviss.com
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the first link: Advisor Services clients
3. When you get to the Advisor Services site, click on New User at the top of the page.
4. This takes you to a self-registration page. Select Client and click on Next.
5. Enter the requested information. You’ll need to have your Shearwater account number handy. You can select your own Login ID and Password.
6. Click Submit
7. When you get to the Relationship Maintenance page, you should see “00442 Shearwater Capital, LLC” under Defined Relationships. Click on Apply, and then Continue.
8. Review the Website User Agreement and click on Agree (if you agree to the terms).
9. When you get to the What’s New page, click on Accounts in the upper left corner, scroll over Account Tracking and click on Account Information.

Once you’ve gone through this process once, you can skip most of these steps. Simply go to the Advisor Services page (see steps 1 and 2 above) and click the Login button at the top of the page. Enter your Login ID and Password, log in and you’re ready to go.

The above instructions may vary somewhat depending on your web browser. If you have any trouble accessing your account information, please call the Fiserv technical support line at 800-564-2436. Jared Meese (our new employee) would also be happy to help. You can reach him at 314-434-4750 or jmeese@shearcap.com.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Jeffrey J. Brown, MD MBA CFA

Shearwater Capital